Food For Thought
by ScorplinginTraining
Summary: Who knows us better than our best girlfriends? Paige goes to lunch and gets more than she ordered.


FOOD FOR THOUGHT

 **AN: I'm only going where the plot bunnies are hopping these days.**

 **oxoxoxoxoxo**

Paige dodged between the tables of the bustling restaurant, ducking trays carried by scrambling waiters and avoiding carts pushed by bussers doing their best to clear dishes as soon as diners got up to leave.

Ah, the lunch rush. Paige remembered it way too well. Her back and legs ached just thinking about it.

She was busily texting with both thumbs while trying to keep an eye on the path to her own table. She didn't have the spare time to either collide with anyone or slow down. She was already running late.

Hitting send and looking up from the screen, she spied her friend looking pretty as a picture, her red hair shining bright as a new penny in the early afternoon sunshine streaming in through the restaurant's front window.

Amy looked up and smiled at her approach, rising half way up to press her cheek to Paige's as they gave each other air kisses.

Paige rolled her eyes as she stuffed her phone in the front pocket of her purse, determined to give all of her attention to her lunch companion, and settled in the adjacent seat of the two top. "Whew! So sorry I'm late. Thanks for staying."

"I'm just glad you could make it."

"I know. Me too. The presentation took much longer than I thought it would."

"Well, you're here now. Take a breath and let's catch up. It's been too long. I'm guessing business is going well?"

Their waiter appeared beside them before she could answer. Blowing his sweat dampened bangs out of his eyes and holding a tray against his side with an elbow, he gave Paige a wide, customer service smile. "Hello, I'm Rich. I'll be taking care of you ladies today. What can I get you to drink?"

Amy smirked as he left to get their beverage choices. "If he was rich, he wouldn't be waiting tables. Am I right?" Her eyes were twinkling with mirth.

"We should know." Paige grinned back, enjoying her friend's quick wit.

The two first met at a twenty-four hour greasy spoon where they'd both worked. They were perfect, simpatico sisters from the start. They'd bonded over more than the terrible hours, the stupid comments and grabby hands of the late-night drunks and the lousy tips. Paige could relate to Amy's ambition to eventually make a living from her musical talent. And more than once, the young, single mom poured her heart out into Amy's compassionate ears about giving up her own dreams of a singing career to raise her child after his faithless father abandoned them for a stupid game and a less complicated relationship with a blonde in Tahoe. The guitarist was also one of the few people Ralph could tolerate when he was little, so she often minded him for Paige when they had opposite shifts. They'd survived many break-ups, break downs and breakthroughs with each other over the years since.

"You and I have certainly come a long way since the bad old days, haven't we? To answer you're earlier question, yes, business is good. Too good some days. But starting from scratch is difficult. I've been putting in a lot of extra hours trying to get things off the ground and putting out fires. Sometimes literally." Paige snickered at her own joke. Only someone who'd worked at Scorp… _Centipede_ could fully appreciate it.

The redhead winked conspiratorially. "But you really didn't have to start all the way from scratch, did you? I mean you already had a business model, a team and several potential clients to pitch proposals to. Your ex set you up pretty good in that regard at least. You swept in and stole his employees and all his future work right from under his nose."

The Centipede CEO tried to hide it, but she was a little offended by her friend's remarks. She didn't know why, but she felt like she needed to defend her actions. "Oh, uh, not really. It's not like I sabotaged him on purpose or anything. The team members went with me of their own free will. That's not my fault. And we'd all worked for weeks on those proposals. I was the one who lined up most of them before I quit, anyway. Plus, we had to find new office space and get a loan for new equipment…"

"Hey, no need to justify anything to me. You go, girl. All's fair and all that stuff. He shouldn't have been sneaking around behind your back. Jerk. You dodged a bullet when you dumped him, trust me."

Their server returned with their drinks and Paige took a hasty gulp of hers to stop herself from saying something rude. Why should she be annoyed by Amy's comments about Walter? She wasn't saying anything untrue and she was obviously trying to be supportive.

After they made their menu selections, Paige decided it was best to completely change the subject. "So, I've heard you're new single is doing great. I downloaded it yesterday and it's absolutely beautiful. I play it on repeat when I need a little calm in my day. Usually in the car when I'm speeding from place to place. Not only am I trying to get a new business off the ground, but I'm also taxi service and ATM for an active teenager now."

"Ah, wow. It's hard to believe our little Ralph is officially a _teenager_ now! Gosh, we're gonna blink and he'll be all grown up. How's he adjusting to everything? You know… Is he doing okay with… all the changes?"

Ouch. Another touchy subject.

Paige's gaze dropped to the condiment holder on the table. She chose and opened a pack of thin, crispy breadsticks and took one out. Holding the open package across the middle of the table, she offered Amy one as well. While her friend nibbled on hers, Paige proceeded to break the stick she held into half inch sections simply to have something to do with her hands while she thought of how to answer the question. Her appetite seemed to have deserted her.

"He's… pretty unhappy about it all. He pretends it doesn't bother him, but he's not himself right now. And he won't discuss it. At all. He's gone into total clam mode."

Amy reached across and squeezed Paige's hand briefly. "He'll come around. Kids are resilient. And Ralph'll be better off in the long run. Imagine if he'd turned out like… _that_. Best to remove the influence from his life before it's too late."

After the entrees arrived, Paige was too busy swallowing the unexpected hurt to do much more than pick at her selections while watching Amy dig in with enthusiasm.

"Aren't you hungry?" Amy asked when she noticed Paige using her fork to scoot vegetables from one side of her plate to the other. "The food here is fabulous."

"I-I'm… I have a little headache brewing. Listen, Walter was always really great with Ralph…"

"Speaking of Mr. Wrong, I didn't tell you he came to one of my shows the other night, did I?"

When Paige shook her head, she continued, "Yeah. He sat all the way in the back. But the place was tiny and I could see it was him plain as plain."

Paige swallowed around the tightness in her throat. She couldn't help but ask, "How… Um, how did he look? Was he alone?"

Amy snorted. "All by his lonesome. Not shocking. And do you mean was he sobbing into his water on the rocks or something? Well, you know him. Mr. Robot-o. Who can tell with that one?" She shrugged.

"He… has a hard time showing how he feels. But if you know him well, you can see it. And he's improved so much from when we first met…"

She interrupted as if Paige hadn't said anything, "He came up to me after the show and told me he could 'appreciate the metaphorical meaning of my Sounds in Space song now'. I mean, who talks like that? Honestly, he's _so_ weird. I don't know what you were thinking taking on a charity case like him."

"That's not exactly fair, Amy."

"What do you mean? You said it yourself, I don't know how you put up with him as long as you did. He's ridiculous! You deserve better."

"That's _enough_! He's a _good_ man. Kind and brave and protective and so, so good for my son. In fact, without his influence, I don't know if I'd have ever gotten through to Ralph. I'd also still be stuck working double shifts in that damn diner and getting my ass pinched by dirty old men. I have the career I have now because he saw potential in me and encouraged me. Besides, I'm no picnic, believe me. I'm managing and I expected him to change into my perfect man. And he tried so, so hard. He really did. When did you get to be so mean and judgmental?" Paige didn't even realize she was crying until Amy's face blurred before her eyes.

Her friend handed her a napkin. "I knew it. You kept comparing him to Drew and 'totally terrific Tim', didn't you? Honey, he was never going to cheat. Science may be his first love and he may have occasionally neglected you for it, but you could work around that. It's not a deal breaker or you never would've been attracted to him in the first place. And believe me when I say he was never going to leave you. You know that, right? He _is_ weird. He never really fit in with the rest of your friends and that embarrassed you a little bit. We tolerated him and included him because he was so good to you. We could tell he would've crawled across broken glass for you. And that's all any of us ever wanted for you, you know? A man who genuinely loved you more than himself or _his_ dreams or _his_ ambitions. He looked at you like you were his whole world and he was so grateful to be with you. Walter might be a weirdo, but at the end of the day, he's _your_ weirdo."

"What the hell have I done, Amy? What do I do now?"

"Go. I've got lunch. _Go_. Make it right. Before you have time to talk yourself out of it."

Paige tossed a hurried, "Thanks! Love you!" over her shoulder as she grabbed her purse and bolted for the door.

Amy watched with a knowing smile. She had a sudden epiphany for a new song titled 'Just a Moon in Your Orbit'.

 **AN: I have a friend who is a marriage counselor. In the initial consult, he insults one partner in front of the other. If they jump to their partner's defense, he says it's a good sign. That's where I got the idea for this story.**


End file.
